XPS8700 One Beep at Power ON

Even more perplexing.....Dell replaced your Motherboard and with the new MB and it still Powers On with One beep.....Correct?

After the Install did you question the repairer....I mean he was there to replace what Dell support advised was a bad Motherboard because it made the One Beep....and after he put the New MB in it still powered on with One beep?  What explanation did the repairer or....and if....you re-contacted dell Support...what did each say?

I for one returned my XPS8700 because I did not want my brand New XPS8700 PC torn apart and put back together by a Tech that probably had never worked on an XPS8700....how did that go for you?  Did you truly feel the tech put everything back like it was when built at the factory.....?  

Sorry, I guess it wasn't clear. I cancelled the repair call because I felt like I solved all the problems. I have had no problems since I reinstalled my printer driver and reset my PC. I was like you-did not want some equally clueless tech guy going in a causing even more problems.

Well My sister in law just bought the same exact XPS 8700 PC and hers beeps one at boot as well.

Apparently this is normal and indicates a successful POST, as long as the pc boots and loads the operating system.  Now, if it beeps once but does not boot or load Windows, THEN it might be a sign of a mother board failure as the Dell published beep error codes indicate.

I also read somewhere that you can disable the beep on successful POST by turning off a BIOS option.

Its a shame that their are people like fredde2 that find it necessary to be so unhelpful........and provide nothing of any value

I recently received my XPS 8700 and had the single beep on startup / power up from the first time I powered it on.  The sound drove my dog crazy :emotion-1:

I spoke to a dell tech who said it was the motherboard (like the other posts), but if you read the documentation it states that a single beep that repeats indicates that it could be a motherboard problem.  In my case, the beep only occurs once, so its not the motherboard.

I spoke to a different dell tech who had me check my bios version.  Press the windows key and the "x" key simultaneously, then select "Run" and type 'msinfo32'.  From the popup, look at your bios version number.  It's the 12th entry.  My new computer had BIOS A04.

The tech had me update to BIOS version A06 by using the link below.  I installed the new bios and my dog is loving life -- No more beep on start up :emotion-2:

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/Product/xps-8700?driverId=KT62X&osCode=W864&fileId=3325845171&languageCode=en&categoryId=BI

I guess Dell got tired of all the questions about that (normal) single POST beep on the XPS 8700,  so they suppressed that beep in BIOS A06.

Wonder how many motherboards got replaced before their Tech Support people learned that a single POST beep on systems running earlier versions of BIOS, was not a motherboard failure? :emotion-5:

Unfortunately, the update site isn't totally efficient at presenting a list of available updates based on Service Tag. It's easier to look for all available updates for your system model and then choose the ones you need / want.

Unless BIOS A06 fixes a problem you actually have, there's probably no reason to update from A04. There is always a small chance a BIOS flash update will turn the motherboard into a brick, so you have to consider that when deciding whether to update BIOS or not.  That said, if the system is still under warranty, and a Dell BIOS update fails, Dell will replace the motherboard under the warranty.

It's hard to know what A06 actually changes (I've asked but not had any response). The one thing that seems to have changed is that A06 no longer gives the normal single POST beep, probably because too many users thought the one beep was the error code for a motherboard failure. And there have been some problems reported with WiFI and Bluetooth after updating to A06.  If your system is working correctly now, don't bother updating BIOS now, unless you want to get rid of that POST beep. My 2-cents...

You can check the version of each driver that's installed for each piece of hardware by looking at the Driver tab in Device Manager for that device. Compare that number with the one listed on the support site and if they're different, decide if you need the new one based on the info provided on the site. You can also tell by release dates too. If the date of the driver listed on the site is very recent, chances are you don't have it. Review the changes and decide if you need it.

Hello, I purchased a Dell 3.4 GHz Alienware X51 (Win7) on September 28th, 2012. It has always beeped once on bootup and I have never had issues with the computer. Shortly after I purchased it, I partitioned the hard drive and installed a dual boot with Win7 and 8. The computer has not had my issues since I bought it in 2012. The beep has always annoyed me though and I found this page while searching for a fix. Normally I don't notice it as it does not beep when it comes out of sleep mode. Anyway, I love this computer and have always thought the short beep at bootup was normal. I will try the Bios update pdkempl posted. EDIT: I Updated my BIOS and the beep is still there. Unfortunately, it also seems to have increased the boot time. It used to boot within about 2-3 seconds. Disappointing.

NWSTORM - Are you serious?? Why would you even try to update an Alienware X51 with a version of BIOS that's only listed as being compatible with the XPS 8700?

I'm actually surpised it allowed you to update BIOS, and didn't turn the motherboard into a useless brick.

I realize now that I posted in a thread for XPS 8700, sorry! RoHe- No, I did not install the 8700 BIOS, I scrolled down the list and downloaded and installed the X51 BIOS (for my system) from that above link. I was hoping that they also fixed the boot beep with that most recent version but they didn't.

Thanks for clarifying. If you're still having boot delays with whatever version of X51 you flashed, you might want to post that issue in the Alienware Club forum so the experts over there can help.

Don't know why you object to the POST beep. It's a good way to know the system is functioning normally when you boot, but that's my personal preference.